Throughout my career, I’ve been a pretty massive personal development junkie. Books, podcasts, webinars, and programs (mostly free ones) were long-standing staples. Coaching, somewhat unexpectedly, has become a vital component of that.

Honestly, the idea of coaching always came across as some weirdo hacks without legit psych degrees (or any degrees) and barely enough experience to fill a thimble. For a long time, I wondered, “Are these coaches the real deal or just extras from a self-help infomercial?” Do a Google search on “coaches,” and you’ll find tons of people with tacky headshots and way too many letters after their names.

(Some) Coaches are Brilliant.

I always thought it made more sense to get counselling. People specialize in this field at university and college, after all. My misconceptions about coaching likely come from its lack of regulation. I compare this to engineering, psychology, or medicine, all of which are regulated and tightly governed. Most of what I knew about it was based on the massively extroverted self-promoters you’d see on social media.

My opinion of coaching started to change when I heard from my wife about some of her coaching experiences and the benefits and changes she’d seen. Then, I tried it myself with a significant (to me) investment in 2022 when I engaged a coach myself.

Though I was not in the right spot at that time to be coached, or at least not to maximize my potential, I understood how someone working on bigger life goals and getting unstuck from where they are would benefit from a coach.

The seeds planted at the time were slow to take root. I eventually made a series of required changes, leaving the corporate job that made me miserable and seeking ways to impact the world significantly.

I am an engineer, but not the most brilliant or technical electrical engineer. I care more about how people work than how electrons move. This interest in people led me to sales, business development, and project management rather than technical design and specification. But there was still something missing.

I enrolled in the Leader As Coach program at Lethbridge College almost on a whim. I don’t lead a team and wasn’t planning to be a coach. And then, suddenly, I was! I am now a coach working towards my ICF certification.

The Biggest Difference Between Coaching & Counselling.

Coaching and counselling differ in their approach. Counselling is prescriptive and diagnostic, often addressing an individual’s issues with a specific course of treatment. In contrast, coaching uses powerful questions to guide self-discovery, aiming for growth rather than remediation. While counselling focuses on resolving problems, coaching empowers healthy individuals to reach new potential. Most of us likely have aspects that could benefit from counselling and coaching at different times.

At first, I wondered, “Shouldn’t a coach just tell me what to do? My high school football coaches never asked which plays we should run. They would just tell us!”

Why Coaching Works.

Then I realized why coaching works:  because I’m an adult. Adults learn differently than kids or teens. But adults also underestimate how much experience and knowledge they’ve accumulated. Through the Leader As Coach program, I saw how powerful questions – and the dialogue that followed – revealed the wisdom and decision-making capability inside us all. Often, we need a coach to draw that out.